Gov. Andrew Cuomo (right) conducts an inspection tour of the Tappan Zee Bridge, in Tarrytown, with representatives from New York State Thruway Authority and New York State Department of Transportation.
(File photo / AP, 2010)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's unilateral raid on more than a half billion dollars in clean water funds designated for our communities to instead help build a new Tappan Zee bridge is bad public policy, undermines local government and risks the loss of federal dollars to our states.

Clean water funds are what keep our sewage systems intact. And the state admits that, after decades of neglect, we now face more than $36 billion in needed upgrades in the coming years. Nonetheless, the Cuomo administration raid will shortchange the program resulting, for instance, in frequent boil water alerts and the closure of waterways overrun with raw sewage whenever it rains.

By keeping these funds away from their intended purpose and in state coffers, Gov. Cuomo is barreling ahead overtop of federal and local objections. He says his raid means lower tolls on the new bridge, but he refuses to publicly share his math or where the remaining two billion still needed to build this bridge will come from. No one questions the need for a new Tappan Zee, but after several years of him pushing this project without a financing plan, it should not come at the expense of our communities' clean water needs.